Kopy Kings
In an interview at the end of the documentary Hearts of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola states that his hope is that the then newly introduced 8mm camcorders would lead to the growth of filmmaking as a personal independent art form; moving away from the unwieldy ‘movie business’. I’m paraphrasing of course, what he said was something about how he hoped a ‘little fat girl’ (unkind) in Ohio would be the filmmaking Mozart, but I think I captured his point.
When I first heard this in the early 90’s I laughed at the absurdity. Video camcorders at the time had an image that was best described as abysmal and film in any form was expensive and complicated to work with and edit. Even in the indie film days of the 90’s, most successful filmmakers had to be able to raise considerable capital to feed the monster of film processing costs.
Fifteen years later and something miraculous happened. Digital video got better, and more affordable, and more versatile, and widely distributed across the planet. Now a talented director, with a good story and cast and crew of equally talented individuals can compete head to head with studio backed projects. The bar of entry has been lowered from tens of millions to tens of thousands. It’s allowing true independent films with personal visions, the opportunity not only to exist, but to break out in the market place and find an audience.
Free and Indie Video – Kopy Kings
Kopy Kings is a stunning example of this effect in action. Writer/Director Greg Dorchak has produced a top quality workplace comedy on his own dime and it looks like a multimillion dollar affair, but cost just the tiniest fraction of that. The film was shot in Austin, Texas using local talent and locations. Kopy Kings follows a motley crew of employees in a print shop as they make their way through the workday, torment each other and the customers, and look for love and the meaning of life. Described as something like Clerks with a comedic sensibility closer to Super Troopers, it’s funny as hell and incredibly human and down to earth. Check out the trailer:
Here’s where the Ask comes in. Though production has become much more affordable, post video production and finishing costs has not. Kopy Kings has a super short term Indiegogo HERE that you can check out. Greg is trying to raise the last tiny bit to get over that finish line in time to make several big festival submissions. I had the great privilege to be one of the few outsiders who saw a ‘near complete’ version of the film. As a long time reviewer and your trusted PCB festival reporter I can tell you this film stands out from the crowd and deserves our support. I can’t wait for you all to have a chance to see it and check out that Indiegogo campaign between now and June 21st!
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.